Posted on 02/17/2010 5:28:43 PM PST by CJBernard
The complaint, filed by minor high school student Blake Robbins and his parents, alleges that the school district has been spying on the activities of students and students’ families through the “indiscriminant use of and ability to remotely activate the webcams incorporated into each laptop issued to students,” all without the knowledge or consent of any of the students or parents involved.
How the capability was discovered should be enough to put any who value civil liberties and privacy on the edge of their seat. From the complaint (emphasis mine):
"On November 11, 2009, Plaintiffs were for the first time informed of the above-mentioned capability and practice by the School District when Lindy Matsko, an Assistant Principal at Harriton High School, informed minor Plaintiff that the School District was of the belief that minor Plaintiff was engaged in improper behavior in his home, and cited as evidence a photograph from the webcam embedded in minor Plaintiff’s personal laptop issued by the School District."
(Excerpt) Read more at americasright.com ...
Why stop at the kids? If the authorities had the ability to do this with everyone's computer just imagine how safe we'd all be /s.
1984
What if they had caught child abuse?
Like teachers who bully, harass, or molest their students?
What if they had caught drug use/dealing?
What? There are no drugs in school? Kids can't find them there? That'd be news to our school where some kids were busted for drug dealing.
What if they had caught bullying or even a murder?
Bullying doesn't happen in public schools??????? BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They're the worst offenders.
What if they had caught a kid planning a Columbine event?
What if they allowed concealed carry?
Why does a wealthy school district hand out laptops? I’d be willing to bet 90% of those students already have one or at least a computer in the home
Actually, they couldn't even in those situations either. There's simply no way in the world to ever eliminate all crime and wrongdoing. It's just going to happen. And there's no justification for even trying.
Bad things happen and I've suffered far worse at the hands of my classmates than I ever did at home, making it one of THE MAJOR reasons we homeschooled.
The school's job is supposed to be to educate, not police private family lives.
They can't even get the first part right, What the heck makes anyone think that they can get the rest right? For crying out loud, they're a GOVERNMENT entity.
Remember, EBH, "The warning bell of Freedom is ringing, can you not hear it?" and your mentality, you're supporting freedom's demise. You need to think over your position really carefully.
Ooops, clarification needed here. No justification for trying using methods like this. Not that we shouldn't prosecute crime and try to stop it in any reasonable, non-invasive traditional way.
But electronic monitoring? Why not just issue ankle bracelets at birth and monitor everyone that way?
Most do. On a windows machine go to your sound setup and mute the mic. Most likely it already is, but just check. A small piece of clear tape over the webcam will distort the picture to useless, or I nice hello kitty sticker works well and looks nice on a pink laptop. There are setting on the computer to "clamp it down" and keep most hackers out, but physically covering the camera is the only way to be 100% hacker proof.
You would be surprised at how easy it is to gain access to computers these days. For fun I locked my neighbor out of his own system, he learned a valuable lesson on computer security.
Just another reason to get your children out of government schools.
Apparently there was an agreement between the laptop users and the district that outlined responsibilities for both parties, because the parents objected that spying on the household wasn’t in the agreement. If there’s an agreement, then they can’t just do anything they want to. People will rely on the agreement to be truthful and reasonably comprehensive.
Consider, too, the implications when it comes to companies doing this with company issued laptops and netbooks.
It’s incredible. It really is.
Evidence probably would be tossed out in court.
With THAT reasoning, every home in America should be put under constant government surveillance!
I mean, just imagine all the crime we could catch!
...and don't stop there. Put cameras in every bedroom in America too. That will catch lots of rapes, I'm sure.
Do you seriously not see any problem with this???
All would be illegal. First it is illegal for anyone to spy on anyone else unless they are law enforcement and have a court order stating probable cause that a crime is being committed.
Second, and more problematic is the question “What if they had caught underage kids or their parents for that matter, nude." At best the school district would be guilty of providing the tools for peeping toms and pedophiles who are monitoring the cameras.
Thankfully I don't believe this story is true. It isn't as easy to snoop on people as this story would make it seem. The resources required to monitor every student that received a free laptop would be prohibitive, especially considering most of the activity they monitor would be innocent computer usage.
Not many people deal drugs or abuse children or murder or bully or plan mass murder in front of their lap top computers. If you think about it even if they were dealing drugs or planning a Columbine event “on-line” with others how could you tell by looking at their faces?
I suspect the kid sent out naughty pictures of himself to some of his friends or acquaintances and one of them was passed along to the assistant principal. The kid probably told his parents that he was innocent and that the school must have got the photo by spying on him. The parents would have to be pretty gullible to believe him but considering how many on this thread believe him, that isn't so hard to understand.
That's what I was wondering, too. WhyisaTexasgirlinPA probably knows firsthand, too, that this is a very wealthy district. Yet, the funding for these laptops came from state and federal grants. :-0 Why would this district need federal and state funding for free laptops for all high school students?
My son was just asking: What does it mean if the federal government is providing funding for laptops with surveillance capabilities to be handed out free to students? And suppose these families lose their case?
The district must've checked with their lawyers before handing out those laptops. They'll probably argue that the laptop is school property, and that once the student turns it on, he is connected with the school system, which has the right to monitor its property... This will be an interesting case to watch.
The fact that the lawyers took the case suggests there must be some merit to it.
No doubt, there's more to the story. No one is defending the student. We don't even know what the student did. That doesn't change the fact that the school handed out laptops with cameras that worked both ways and that the school could spy on the laptop users, without informing them in advance of this capability.
Could the school use the excuse that they included this software so that if the laptop was stolen or lost it might be found more easily? This will be an interesting case to follow.
I could be wrong, but I read EBH’s post differently. It didn’t seem as if EBH was justifying the school district’s behavior. It read as if EBH were asking: How would people react if a violent crime had been caught through these laptops? I’m guessing we all would be glad the perp was caught, but we still would be shocked by the two-way camera part of the story.
Maybe, maybe not. A lawyer doesn't have to prove something is true in court in order to win a large award or settlement. He just needs to make a jury or judge believe that it is true. Perhaps there is a grain of truth to the schools surveillance abilities. Perhaps they could monitor a student if they suspect, via other sources, that he is doing something illegal.
On the other hand, it is interesting that a prosecutor has apparently declined to get involved even though if what is alleged actually occurred, the school would have committed numerous state and federal crimes.
Hopefully we will find out the truth eventually.
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